The Second Curse
by IfIWereANerd
Summary: The second curse sweeps everyone back to the Enchanted Forest except for Henry, Emma and her baby sister. One family's determination to find each other. Whole story in one post. Won't be relevant for long, so read up if you're interested!


**This just came to me on the bus and I jotted it down. Based on one possible interpretation of the trailer for 3x11. The only AU part of this story is that Snow and Charming already had a baby before this new, mysterious curse hits. If you're interested, read now, because this story won't be relevant for long! This post is the entire story, although there is room for a sequel if people are interested, though I haven't thought that up yet.**

* * *

The carpet slid unsteadily onto the frosted forest floor. Henry closed his eyes and held his breath, gripping Eva's wrist as tightly as he could. The air threatened to freeze his bare fingers, but still he latched on. The carpet came skidding to a halt, and he and Eva tumbled off it, bumping roughly against the flora before they too slid to a halt in the damp frost.

"Where are we?" Eva called in her high-pitched toddler voice.

Where were they, indeed? Had it worked? Had he finally found a way back? Henry righted himself, dusting off his knees and pulling Eva to her feet as well. The hard part was over, but the battle was definitely not yet won. He wasn't even sure he'd found his way to the right realm. And even so, they might still be miles away from any living being. And, just like the world they'd come from, it was cold.

Ignoring the growing numbness in his fingers, Henry rolled the threadbare oriental carpet up and threw it over his shoulder.

"Come on, Eva," he said, reaching for her small hand with his free one. "We've got to start walking."

"Can't we use the carpet again?" she pouted as her tiny strides tried to keep up with Henry's. "I'm cold."

"I'm not sure I could get it to work again," Henry panted, his voice quiet with the cold and the effort the journey had taken him. He still couldn't believe he'd found a way to fly the carpet in the first place. Still didn't even know how he'd done it. He tried not to think about it, because it reminded him of her, and that hurt a strange place in his chest. He bent his head forward and just focused on putting one dreary foot in front of the other.

He wasn't sure how long they walked before they heard voices. Indistinguishable at first, Henry did not know if they were friend or foe. He halted his pacing and, when Eva turned her tiny face up at him curiously, he motioned for her to remain quiet and still. He strained his ears.

"It fell somewhere in these woods," came a vaguely familiar voice. "I saw it. Came right out of the sky."

"Charming, what if it's them? What if they found a way to get back?"

Henry's heart fluttered. He surely knew that voice. It had been four years, but he would never forget the voice of his grandmother. She sounded just like her daughter. His heart stung.

"If it's them, we will find them Snow, I promise," came the Prince's voice, and right behind it the Prince himself came into view from behind a mist of trees yards down the wood. Charming halted at the figure he saw before him, squinting. "Henry?"

Henry tried to speak back, but he found he didn't have the energy. He couldn't do anything but stand and watch. Soon they would know. Soon they would see who was missing, and they would know, and he didn't think he could bare that. As he watched, a pale brunette woman came into view. Her hair was long when it hadn't been short, but there was no mistaking her. She too called out to him.

"Henry!" She and her husband both began sprinting towards the young pair. Behind them, Henry glimpsed a flash of someone he thought he recognized, but he wasn't sure. He'd only known his father very, very briefly. Eva looked up at Henry beside her.

"Who are they?" she asked him. He felt his stance sway and he blinked, trying to keep the scene in focus. He'd found them. He'd done as he'd promised. It was over.

"Those are your parents," Henry muttered blearily, and when he closed his eyes he found he could not open them again, nor stop the ground from rushing up to meet him.

* * *

"No, Mom, please!"

Henry could feel his mother's arms around him as he squeezed her tight. She was trembling. Or was that him?

"I have to try, Henry, you know that," he heard Regina say, but that just made him cling to her harder. "I can't stop the curse, but I can weaken the affects and I have do what I can."

He saw her face swimming before his, tears in her own eyes.

"I love you so much," she said.

He was afraid to say it back, because he knew it would be the last time, and he thought, in some desperate insanity, that if he didn't say it, then she couldn't go. Couldn't…

A flash of his two moms together, Regina telling Emma to take good care of him and Emma promising to do so. Then she was walking away. Why was she walking away?

"Mom! No! Please, don't…!"

But someone's arm was stopping him from running after her, and he was being dragged across a bright red line that shone like blood.

"I'm sorry, Henry," the owner of the arm kept saying and stray blonde hair fell into his view, but if she was sorry then why wasn't she letting go of him.

Then purple fog, rolling powerfully down the hill, threatening to engulf them all and a bright, extended flash emanating from his adopted mother as he screamed for her. The color of the fog turned from purple to a light pink, but it didn't not cease it's rolling, and just before it engulfed them all, he saw her fall to her knees, then to the ground entirely. The fog rolled over her, rolled over them all, and stopped inches from his face.

He sat up instantly, sweating pouring down his face even though he was freezing, and found himself in an unfamiliar bed with high stone ceilings. Someone was rubbing his arm comfortingly.

"It's alright," came his father's soothing voice. "It was just a dream. You're safe now. It was just a dream."

Oh, how he wished that were true. How he wished it were all a dream.

* * *

Snow stroked the blonde hair of her daughter as she sat dozing in her lap. She had grown so much. She had been only days old the last time she'd seen her. Since she'd seen both her daughters, one cradling the other, just over the town line as the fog had engulfed her and ripped her from them. She couldn't be sure who had been crying harder, the infant Eva or herself.

What choice did they have? The curse was inches away, threatening to rip them from this world and re-enslave them with new false memories. Regina had told them she didn't have the power to stop the curse, but she could possibly alter it one of two ways. She could stop it from ripping them away, but at the cost of their memories. Or, she could retain their memories, but each person who was engulfed by the fog would be returned to the world in which he or she was born.

She couldn't forget. Not again. She would lose Emma and Henry and Charming all over again, without any hope of ever getting them back. Maybe they'd all be together, but they'd be strangers, never to know they were a family, trapped in time for the rest of their days. But the alternative left Henry and her baby Eva in this world all alone, as they were the only ones born here.

"I'll take them," Emma offered. "I'll take Henry and Eva, I can cross the border without losing my memories, and the curse won't touch me to bring me back to where I was born, and I'll stay with them."

"No," Snow had shook her head furiously. "No, I won't lose my daughters again."

"You'll lose us either way," Emma told her firmly. She caught her mother's frantic eyes. "At least this way you know that we'll find you again. And you'll remember us when we do."

"Whatever we're doing, we better decide it now!" Regina had called out as the fog rounded the corner and bore down on them.

Snow could not help sobbing as she handed Eva to Emma, as she had handed Emma to Charming all those years ago. Charming placed a gently kiss on the baby's head, then the family had shared a desperate embrace as Regina was sharing her last moments with a resistant Henry.

It all seemed to happen in a flash. Emma was dragging Henry over the town line and Regina was falling to the ground and Snow was straining uncontrollably against Charming, her maternal hormones overcoming her common sense. Emma herself was crying, but she heard her voice loud and clear across the boundary as the trio in front of her faded in a haze of smoke.

"I will find you," she promised. "I will always find you."

"Are you really my mother?" Eva asked from her arms. Snow looked down into her beautiful eyes. They looked exactly like Emma's. She smiled and tried to wipe the mist of the memory she was reliving from her eyes.

"I am really your mother," she said, grinning and nodding lovingly. "And I have waited so long to see you again."

Snow pulled Eva close to her and squeezed her tight, never wanting to let go. But there was still the question gnawing at her gut, and the more time passed, the wilder her imagination became with reasons for why Henry and Eva would be here and Emma would be absent.

"Sweetheart," Snow cooed, trying to ease the tension she was feeling from her voice. "Do you remember Emma?"

Eva perked up.

"Auntie Emma?"

Snow smiled. "Yes, Auntie Emma."

Eva grinned sloppily. "Auntie Emma was the best Auntie ever."

Snow swallowed hard. Was?

"Why isn't she with you and Henry?" she asked, her voice shaking.

Eva frowned and looked down at her chest.

"The bad men hurt Auntie Emma," she mumbled. "Henry cries about it sometimes. He says we don't get to see her again."

Before she could even react to the information, or ask another question, the door creaked open and Charming's head popped through the door.

"Daddy!" Eva said joyfully, bounding from her mother's lap and bouncing into his arms.

"Henry's awake," he said, his voice somber. Snow stood and searched his face for any sign of news of their other daughter that was less cryptic than Eva's twisted four-year-old version.

"And did he say what happened?" Snow asked. "Where's Emma?"

Charming caught Snow's eyes with his own, and Snow knew what he was going to say before he said it.

"She didn't make it."

Snow's world fell away from her. The edges of her vision glazed over and all sound became muffled save for the sharp sound of her own echoed breaths and the harsh thumping of her heart in her chest. She felt as if she was falling. She took a step, but the sensation persisted. She took another step, then she felt her body involuntarily bolt through the door, past her husband and down the corridor towards the palace entrance.

"Snow…" she heard her husband call out behind her, but she did not stop until she was outside and well into the woods.

* * *

Henry stared down at the cold, grey stone. He wished the tears would come, but his face remained stony as the grave in front of him, cold and impassive. It read:

Here lies

Regina Mills

Beloved Daughter and Mother

Hero of the Enchanted Forest

Henry appreciated that final sentiment. He knew it could just as accurately say 'Villian of the Enchanted Forest'. That's what she was for most of her life, but by the end, she was trying to be a hero. For him.

He also appreciated that they had laid her to rest in the middle of the meadow where she used to ride her horses, just by the stables. He'd never asked her about horses – what she loved about them or if she could teach him to ride like she did.

He had also never asked her about him. His eyes scanned over the tomb next to hers. Daniel. He knew the story from his book, but he'd never asked her the real version. How had they met? What did she love about him? Did she think she would ever be able to love again?

Didn't matter now. Henry's face remained stony, save for the slight scowl it held against the bitter winter wind. He tried to remember the last words she'd said to him, the last time he'd seen her face, but when he closed his eyes and pictured it, all he could see was her falling to the ground, the force of the magic she was using too great for her body to handle. Emma really didn't need to be holding Henry across the border. This side or that side, what happened to Henry would be the same. He would stay in the real world, where he was born, where he'd always been. And everyone else would be gone.

Just after the smoke cleared, after Henry had cried himself out and Emma had pulled herself together as well and had calmed now-orphaned Eva, she had pulled Henry aside.

"Henry, I'm going to do everything I can to get us back to our family, but I need you to promise me something," she had said urgently.

"Anything," he assured her.

"I need you to promise me that if anything happens to me, that you will get yourself and Eve back to your grandparents."

"Nothing is going to happen to you," he had told her with confidence.

"Nonetheless, I need you to promise," she insisted.

"I promise," he had said.

He sniffed against the wind as he remembered how, despite the all the stress in the years at followed, and lord knows she bore the brunt of it, Emma would always insist that each night they sit down as a family and read a little bit of Henry's storybook to remember the family that was far away from them. As Eva grew, she began to learn where she came from and vaguely who her parents were and why she wasn't with them right now.

"But some day soon," Emma would always say. At points Henry found it comforting, but sometimes it drove him up a wall.

"I thought I might find you here," came a voice from behind Henry. He whirled around to find his grandfather coming towards him. He turned back to the grave.

"Where's Eva?"

"I left her with her pseudo brother in law, for lack of a better term," Charming said, and when Henry looked at him quizzically, he clarified, "your father."

"Oh," Henry said, turning back to his mother's grave. He felt, rather than saw, Charming pull up beside him and mimic his stance. "Thank you," he said. His voice sounded deep and old. "For burying her here. It was… she would like it."

"It's the least she deserved," Charming assured him. "I know your grandmother and I had our arguments with your mother, but what she did was nothing short of selflessly heroic."

The pair shared a silence, then Henry burst out what he could no longer keep to himself.

"It's all my fault."

"No, Henry, of course it's n…"

"She died for me. And Emma too. If it weren't for me, Pan would never have even been in Storybrooke, would have never stolen the curse in the first place. If it weren't for me, Emma wouldn't have had to stay behind. She could have come here with the rest of you during the curse and you would have all been together."

"You can't think like that," Charming implored him, but Henry couldn't see why not. It was the truth. He would not look his grandfather in the eye. Charming mused at how much he'd grown. Nearly seventeen he must be now, and he looked as if he'd seen much more than he should have for that age.

"If it weren't for you, I'd still be in a coma," Charming reminded him. "We would all still be cursed, Emma would never have known she had a family who loved her. You've done amazing things, Henry. Well above and beyond what most heroes have to face."

"Then why do I feel like this?" Henry asked in a vulnerable voice, casting a sideways glance at Charming. Were they really almost the same height now?

"Because this is how it feels to lose someone you love."

Henry knew his grandfather meant what he said, but he also knew that was because Charming didn't know everything. He didn't know what else Henry had done. What he could never forgive himself for. He hadn't just lost someone he loved. He'd abandoned her.

* * *

Snow sat with her back to the rough wooden inside of her small former hide out, growing steadily cold her. Around her lay the scattered remains of all the different trinkets she had attempted to use to find her way back to her daughter in the other world. There were a number of hats she had forced Jefferson to make before he had called her obsessive and told her they were never going to work. There were shards of the magic mirror she'd dragged from her stepmother's palace to see if she could find anyway to any other realm through the looking glass. She had even scoured the woods for another enchanted tree – maybe the first had dropped an acorn as it was being moved and another had sprouted. Not that she'd know what it looks like. Not that is mattered any more.

She heard the branches rustle at the entrance, but she did not look up as she spoke. "How did you find me?"

"I happen to be very well-practiced at finding you," came Charming's low voice. "It wasn't hard. You've spent nearly all your time here for the last four years, trying to figure out a way back to her."

Snow looked up at him then, and the pair shared a look of devastation.

"I keep picturing the last time I saw her," Snow whispered, barely able to get the words out. Charming came and sat next to her.

"I know," he nodded.

"She said she'd find us, and I just, I wanted to believe…" her voice cracked and Charming placed his arm around her as she leaned into his chest. She could tell by the way that it rose and fell unevenly that he was stymieing his owns tears. "I just can't help running through my had the life she had."

"Snow…" Charming resisted, knowing where this was going.

"Twenty-eight years of no one, growing up completely alone, believing she was unloved and abandoned, and then – what? Two years with her family? One of them not even knowing who they were, fighting against Regina? All to have it ripped away from her again. And then what sounds like four years of fighting again, raising two children all alone, just to have it end…"

She didn't want to finish. She didn't want to picture it.

"I know," Charming agreed again. "I know exactly what you mean. I miss her so much."

Snow looked up into her husband's face and saw tears trickling down his face. She said the thing she had been afraid to say.

"She wasn't just my daughter," she admitted, her voice quavering. "She was my best friend."

Charming pulled Snow tighter to him and the couple sat there, grieving together, until the light in the sky had begun to fade. Snow had a thought.

"Eva?" she asked, looking up again through her dampened eyelashes.

"I left her with Neal," Charming explained. "He seemed like he could use the company."

"She looks just like her," Snow noted sadly. Charming chuckled.

"She does. She has her spirit, too."

"We should go back," Snow said. "We don't want her to feel like her arrival and meeting her parents for the first time is draped in sadness."

Charming nodded in agreement, but still waiting for Snow to make the first move, which took another moment.

* * *

"It took a while for Emma to figure out a possible other way back," Henry began. His grandparents grieving eyes were boring into him so hard, but when turned he only met his own father's devastated expression. He took a deep breath and continued recounting the last four years. Eva had just fallen asleep in her room nextdoor. "First she had to find us all a place where people wouldn't ask questions, considering she wasn't our legal guardian and she risked losing me and Eva if people found out."

Snow had not thought at the time of their parting what life would be like for Emma, with two children in tow on her own in the real world after they left, but not moments after she had found herself back in her home land had it flooded her mind. She had allowed herself a few moments of grief before she had begun her own search for any kind of portal back.

"Then she started scouring the globe for fairytale fanatics and enthusiasts, anyone who might know that this place actually exists, like Greg and Tamara did, and might have any information on how to cross worlds. She also started studying the original versions of the fairytales themselves, looking for any clues on how to cross worlds. I tried to help in any way I could, but she only let me know so much, and always kept me in the dark when it came to things she thought might get dangerous."

Neal shifted in his seat uncomfortably, while Charming and Snow shared a glance.

"Then, about a year ago, she went away. She said she couldn't say where she was going, but she thought she was close to finding a way and she needed to leave the country. We couldn't go because we didn't have valid passports, and as far as anyone official new, Eva didn't even exist. She was gone about a week, and when she got back, she had that with her."

Henry motioned to the carpet, which was still rolled up and was leaning against the wall in the corner of the room. For something so powerful, it looked incredibly shabby.

"The magic carpet?" Snow breathed as the group eyed it.

"Brilliant," Charming mused sadly.

"She always was good at finding things," Neal offered somberly.

"I have no idea how she tracked it down," Henry continued. "I didn't get the chance to ask. She was frantic when she returned. She told us we had to leave right then, that things hadn't gone according to plan and there were people coming after us."

Snow leaned forward, listening intently.

"But before we could get out they were there. At least a dozen men. Big men, I don't know where they came from, or how they knew what they knew, but they definitely knew that Emma wasn't born in this world. They surrounded her, and banged her up pretty bad before they eventually pulled out the gun. I think she probably could have gotten herself out if she hadn't also had to worry about me and Eva."

Neal brought a balled fist up to his face, struggling with his emotions. Charming had to stand and turn his back to them. He walked to the mantle at the other end of the room, then stood leaning against it.

"They let us go because we were born in this world, and for some reason that meant we weren't a threat. I made sure to come back for the carpet after they were gone, and after a few attempts, I discovered that I could fly it."

Henry would have been ecstatic to learn that he had inherited magic from his mother under normal circumstances, but as things stood, he would be surprised if he ever managed to feel happy about anything ever again.

From the next room, they heard a soft, high-pitched scream. The four of them in the room stiffened instantly, but Henry had heard that sound before and knew what it was.

"She's having a nightmare," Henry said as Snow stood and fled into the next room to comfort her daughter. Henry followed her. He knew how to console Eva. He'd been doing it for months now. They found the four-year-old still asleep, tossing and turning, nearly trapped in her bedding.

"Sweetheart, shh," Snow cooed, sitting next to her and gently rubbing her shoulder to wake her. "It's ok, you're safe, it's just a dream."

Eva woke and after orienting herself for a few moments out of her dream burst into tears. Snow wrapped her warmly in her arms and Eva leaned into her mother.

"Everything's ok now," Snow said. "Mama's here. I'm not going to let anything happen to you." She struggled to say it, remembering all of the things she couldn't protect her other daughter from.

Eventually, Eva's breathing calmed. Henry stood at the foot of the bed, wishing he could bawl and scream like his young aunt did. He thought it might make him feel better.

Eva looked straight at Henry across the room with sad eyes.

"I miss Auntie Emma," she told him in a small voice.

Snow's face cringed as she tried to hold her tears back, but Henry himself was used to pulling on a brave face at these comments now. He rounded the end of the bed and sat next to Eva.

"Do you want me to sing the song she used to sing you as you go back to sleep?" he asked softly.

Eva nodded her small head. Snow held the covers back for her to climb into bed, and she dragged Henry so that he was lying next to her and she was snuggling under his chin. They had spent many nights like this, escaping from the cold with each other's slight body heat. It followed that it would take a while for someone so young to get used to a change.

Snow sat beside them, patting the bedding comfortingly around her daughter and grandson. She briefly held Henry's glance gratefully before he began.

When you wish upon a star

Makes no difference who you are

Anything your heart desires

Will come to you

Snow's lip quivered and the pools already dancing in her eyes spilled over, trailing down her cheeks.

If your heart is in your dream

No request is too extreme

When you wish upon a star

As dreamers do

Henry could feel Eva's tiny body relaxing into sleep against him. Snow couldn't take it, she stood from the bed and swiftly left the room, but Henry continued.

Like a bolt out of the blue

Fate steps in and sees you through

When you wish upon a star

Your dreams come true

Henry lay there with Eva past when she fell asleep. He felt the night slipping away around him. In the dark, the memory came back to him. He couldn't stop it. Couldn't help remembering the tall man standing over his mother, his cronies holding her down, preventing him from saving her.

"Are you the only one, or are there others from your world?" he asked.

"Go to hell," Emma spat. The man seemed bemused, then he nodded curtly to one of the men holding Emma, who promptly dealt her a strong blow to the stomach. Emma crumpled to the floor, and Henry instinctively lunged to protect her, but found himself blocked by two men of his own. The tall man took a menacing step forward.

"I will ask you again, Miss Swan," he hissed. "Are you the only one?"

"Yes," she panted, trying to sound firm despite her loss of breath. "It's just me."

"What about the boy and the girl?" one of the men asked, eyeing Henry, and Eva crouching behind him in the corner.

"They were born here, they have absolutely nothing to do with this." That wasn't entirely true, but Henry held is tongue. The man who had commented looked at the leader who was towering over Emma.

"Test them," the man ordered indifferently. One of the men stepped towards Henry and Eva with a similar needle they'd used in drawing Emma's blood just moments ago. Emma's protective instincts went wild.

"You keep your hands off them…" she snarled, lunging towards the corner, only to be caught by the throat by the man in charge, who pinned her easily against the wall.

"Stop!" Henry had challenged, but before he could move he was already grappling with the man with the needle, who pricked him easily and sent him reeling violently back into the wall in the corner. Beside him, another man had just as unceremoniously drawn Eva's blood, but Henry caught her as he tossed her aside, bawling. The men looked at the devices.

"She's telling the truth," one of them said. "These two are from this world."

The leader loosened his grasp on Emma's neck and tossed her to the ground, where she lay sputtering air back into her lungs. The man turned to face Henry, who tried to bring himself to his full height, but paled in comparison.

"You," he said to Henry. "Take the girl and go."

Henry tightened his grasp on Eva's trembling arm, but he did not move.

"Let Emma go," he challenged fiercely.

"You're not in a great place to be bargaining, boy," the man threatened, releasing the safety.

"Henry, do what he says," Emma wheezed.

"I'm not leaving you," Henry told her, almost angrily.

The man clicked his bullet into place. "I won't ask again," he warned in a low, menacing tone.

"Henry, you remember what you promised me?" Emma said.

Even at the time, Henry was furious at Emma for playing the promise card. He promised he would help get Eva back to her parents, no matter what. He hadn't realized what it meant until he was looking into the battered and bleeding face of his mother on the ground and she was telling him it was time for him to make good on that promise.

"Go," she told him firmly.

A few of the men all but threw him and Eva down the stairs, and at the bottom, as he scooped Eva into his arms and began to run, he heard the gun fire.

He had told his father and his grandparents the basics. He had left out how he ran. He was already struggling to look Snow in the eye as he told the story, her cheeks glazed with a steady stream of tears. How could he face and her tell her that he, the grandson of a Prince and a Princess, the son of the savior, had turned and fled when she had needed him, leaving her to die.

Henry sat straighter, a thought forming in his head. He looked down at the small blonde toddler curled up next to him, and for a moment felt a pang of guilt for what he was thinking, but it was not strong. He'd done right by her, and sacrificed a lot to do it. He'd gotten her back to her parents. Now it was his time to get back to his.

He slowly unfurled his arm from around her so as not to wake her and slid from the bed. The young blonde readjusted herself, but did not wake from her comfortable slumber. Henry envied her sleep. He hadn't slept peacefully in what felt like four years.

As he stood, he felt his resolve cement itself. He did not even look back was he slipped through the door and quietly latched it closed behind him.

The carpet sat rolled up leaning against the corner of the room outside, which was now dim and emptied. The dreaded carpet that cost them so much and eventually lived up to its promise. He hoisted it over his shoulder. He didn't know how he'd done it the first time, but there was no doubt in his mind that with the determination he felt pulsing through him now, he will be able to fly it again.

"Going somewhere?"

Henry halted and turned to find himself face to face with his father, who was still in the arm chair. His eyes were bloodshot.

"What are you doing up?" Henry asked him.

"I couldn't sleep."

"Me neither," Henry said, trying to pass it off as his excuse for being up and turning to be on his way.

"What are you doing with the carpet?" his father pressed him, standing from his chair.

"I'm going back," he said with a simple determination. "I'm going to find mom."

"I though you said…" Neal whispered, a flicker of hope igniting in his eyes.

"I'm going to get her body, then!" Henry spat, losing his temper. He didn't exactly know what he was going to do, he just knew he couldn't just leave things the way he had.

"Henry, you're not going…" Neal started, but Henry cut him off.

"I can do what I like, and you can't stop me," he said as he roughly shoved him out of the way and continued towards the corridor.

"You didn't let me finish," Neal called after him, and despite his need to get out of the castle as soon as possible and begin his new mission, he paused and turned, waiting for what his one remaining parent had to say. Neal caught his eye meaningfully.

"You're not going alone."


End file.
